TB Free England

Bovine TB (bTB) devastates thousands of farming family businesses every year and tens of thousands of cattle are culled annually in England because of it. Find out more about bTB, its impact, and why we must use all available options to make England TB free.

Farmer's heartbreak after positive bTB test

A farming family has spoken of their heartbreak after one of their cows tested positive for bovine TB on the eve of the Three Counties Show.

The Western Daily Press reported how farmer David Knight broke down in tears at the show after the cow, which had been favourite to win an award, tested positive for the disease.

The newspaper said Mr Knight, and his wife, Sue, from Oakham Farm, at Portbury near Bristol, had planned to take 20 of their animals to the show and later on to the Royal Welsh. But in a routine pre-movement test of 20 animals for bovine TB, Doncombe Gamelia, a sixth-generation cow showed a reaction.

Despite the heartbreak, the newspaper reported that the couple still attended the show and showed a bull for a fellow British Blonde owner, Ian Calderbank, from Essex.

Speaking to the Western Daily Press, Mrs Knight said: "My husband was in tears afterwards, he said it just doesn't seem right not to have our cattle here. It is heart-breaking. I have been crying six or seven times a day since the test, and still am."

"Gamelia, the cow involved, is only four years old, and so gentle. She has helped the grandchildren learn to lead. She is just such a love.

"She will be shot on the farm, she doesn't deserve to be taken away. A lot of people think farmers are hard-hearted but our animals are like our family, and treated with the greatest care.

"We have one animal that is 19 years old. The rest of the herd was due to be tested in July but we have now brought that forward.”